Xara Xtreme

Today I finally decided to check out Xara Xtreme. I paid for it on the 26th of November, using
PayPal (I have been begging for that option for ages, and some time ago it became available). The
29th I got a conformation email, and that if I send the details it would be added to my Xara account
for download. And a few days ago I finally downloaded it (been quite busy).

Wow and warnings

First impression: wow, looks really good, and wow, I love the shadow and bevel tool. The
latter two make my drawing live so much easier, especially the former. In the past, using Corel Xara
2.0, I used to create two copies of an object, making one very dark gray, and the other light gray.
Then I used a blend to make a smooth transition between those two, and finally I tweaked with the
transparency tool to get a nice soft shadow. With the shadow tool can be done in a much easier way.

Xara Xtreme's shadow, bevel, and contour tool in action

I did some experimenting, and loaded some files I originally made with Corel Xara 2.0. When I did this I
noticed that Xara complained. I got the same warning twice:

Xara Xtreme Update cannot write files in the Program
Files\Xara Xtreme folder.
Please ensure that your account is allowed to do so. If you're
not sure ask your system administrator or contact Xara
Technical Support.

Xara Xtreme warning: Update cannot write files

Now this is very odd. Since I use XP Professional, and of course I don't work normally with Administrator
rights. Why on Earth does Xara want a limited user to be able to write files in Program Files\Xara Xtreme?
This is wrong. Per user files should be stored in the per user Application Data folder (%APPDATA%).

Another odd thing I noticed was that when I tried to use the Xara Picture Editor (XPE) from within
Xara, the XPE window showed several "forbidden" icons. I have no idea if this is normal behavior,
but I thought the same as the "helpfull" tooltip was showing when I hovered over those icons: ???.

Xara Picture Editor: why is so much forbidden?

When I ran the Xara Picture Editor outside of Xara I was greeted with:

Cannot register DLL - DllRegisterServer returned error

Xara Picture Editor: Cannot register DLL

It wouldn't amaze me if this error is due to the same programming mistakes as in Xara Xtreme. Anyway,
my recommendation is: there is a very good reason why one can create limited user accounts, so please test
your software in such an environment.

Finally, one remark about the documentation that comes with Xara Xtreme. I never liked the documentation
of a program to be just a list of each tool, and its function. To me that's something you put in an
appendix. Instead of "what is it" a better (in my opinion) sort of documentation would be: how to.
Luckily there are plenty of how tos on line.

Xara Xtreme related

Xara Xtreme Open Source: Xara LX

People might wonder why I decided to buy Xara Xtreme, especially those who have heard me stating that
Xara (and MSN Messenger) are the programs that keep me from migrating to GNU/Linux.

First of all, Xara Xtreme is available right now for Windows XP Professional. Second: it's cheap. The
price is more then right, so I decided not to wait for the Open Source version to come available, also
because Xara hopes that a Windows port of the Open Source version is not going to be made.

I do hope that the Open Source version becomes a major success on GNU/Linux and the Mac. The people
behind Xara certainly deserve this. The program comes very close to what I consider a perfect application.
No tool overkill, extremely simple to use, very quick to grasp.

Xara LX related

ÜberConverter

A related project that might be interesting to you if you're interested in Xara Xtreme or Xara LX is ÜberConverter
which promises to become the universal vector-graphics file converter. The work on Chromista, a part
of uber-converter, is sponsored by Xara Ltd.